Persistent chest pain; seeking answers

Hello all. New member here. Im going to summarize what Ive been dealing with and then see if I can get some response or questions answered.

Im a 31 year old white male, Never had any health problems in my life. I rarely ever even get a cold, or take any medication. Ive been lucky to have good physical health and no issues throughout my life so far. I have battled issues of anxiety and panic attacks however, which are mostly triggered by stressful situations in life that I cant control. I can worry about things to a point of becoming obsessive over it. Im a little underweight, with a wirey frame.

What brings me here today is a problem that surfaced 3 or 4 weeks ago and which I am still trying to get to the bottom of. One evening my g/f and I ate a very late dinner - around 10pm, and it was sheppards pie. It was so good I ate two plate fulls until I was very full. I then made the mistake of laying down almost immediatly and watching a movie and then going straight to bed. It has not been uncommon for me to lay down right after meals and never have any issues at all. Ive never had heart burn problems. The next morning when I woke up, I had a low level chest pain which I began to notice while at work. I mostly ignored it and figured maybe just a pulled muscle or something. 3 days passed and the pain was still present. This pain was constant - 24 hours a day. It never really went away, and never got very bad either. It was a minor pain, a feeling of pressure, or like I had accidentally swallowed a piece of hard candy. I called my doctor at this point, as I began to be concerned. It was a friday and my doctor was already closed. The next day, saturday, I reluctantly decided to go to the emergency room. My g/f had begun to get worried, and I wanted to try and put an end to what was going on, and to rule out a heart problem. Sat in ER for hours hooked up to monitors. Blood tests and xray came back normal - no heart problems...

The following monday, I immediately called my doctor and got an appt. The pain was STILL present. I got in to see Dr. on wednesday I believe and we had a good chat - she seemed to think it was acid reflux, and GERD more specifically. I was reluctant to accept that as I have never had heartburn but maybe 3 or 4 times in my life that I could recall. How could I be normal one day and wake up the next day with full blown GERD? it didnt make logical sense to me, but I began taking PPI that week. I went in friday that week and had blood drawn to test for H. Pylori, as I had begun to spend hours in research and reading to try and diagnose myself. H. pylori test took like a solid week to come back. During the time I was waiting on the test my chest pain mostly went away, and many days I felt totally normal. H. Pylori test came back positive for infection, and I was very surprised. I began Triple therapy to eradicate H. Pylori that same day. Amoxicillen, Clarithomyacin, and Prilosec OTC. Im now nearing the end of the 14 day regime this weekend. For a good 6 or so days I felt pretty good, aside from the massive amounts of antibiotics causing some stomach bloating. However, 4 days ago my chest pain returned, seemingly out of no where yet again. Once again it has persisted now for days. It never goes away. It is there wether I eat or do not eat, it doesnt behave like a typical heart burn pain that happens after eating meals then goes away after a couple hours. This is a steady sensation of pressure in the middle of my chest. Im not noticing any real signs of acid reflux. I dont feel acid coming up or anything of the sort. Something is causing this pain however.

My question here is this: Is it common to have an episode of reflux, perhaps while one is asleep, that can cause irritation in the esophagus that causes pain for several days at a time? I know acid reflux can cause chest pain, but can it last 24 hours a day for 5-7 days, no matter whether you eat or not? Lately it seems eating and swallowing does seem to irritate the sensation, but It may just be in my head, as Ive grown increasingly anxious about this problem. I dont think food is really sticking, but sometimes I seem to sense that it is. I feel my anxiety is likely contributing to this however as Im so focused on the situation, especially when I swallow.

What is scaring me of course is the prospect of esophogus cancer. I meet none of the risk factors for esophagus cancer, but that hasnt stopped me from becoming very anxious about it. I simply cant wrap my head around why the pain is constant. If it came and went with meals, or if I was able to tie the pain to some other action, I wouldnt really worry, but this isnt the case. My glimmer of hope is the 5-6 days that the pain did go away. I am trying to make logical sense of the pattern and what could cause it. Ive spent literally HOURS online researching everything from the H. Pylori and other stomach issues, to every esophagus issue under the sun. I want so badly to put this down to something like simple acid reflux complications, but Its hard for me to do so given Im not having heartburn or symptoms of reflux. Its simply chest pain - that wont go away.

Apologies for a long initial post. I would love to get some insight from any experts of GERD or people who suffer with it and can offer experiences they have had that may be similar. I will be making an appointment with a GI doctor tomorrow to hopefully get an Upper GI or Endoscopy done.

Post Edited (tornado82) : 7/10/2014 7:04:59 PM (GMT-6)

Well in an odd way, that is some good news. Most people I talk to locally who have gerd seem to have issues surrounding eating. 24/7 chest pain for days isnt usually mentioned. When I read up on esophogitis, it seems to suggest that it occurs after continued reflux into the esophogus, not a single reflux event. Ive been growing more and more worried everyday about esophogus cancer, and Ive made the mistake of going out and reading peoples experiences with it, and how they were diagnosed. Some of them seemingly had just one or two symptoms like I am having and were hit with the hard news. Im trying very hard lately just to keep my anxiety under control until I can get an answer. Its destroying my appetite to the point Im hardely eating at meals. I simply have no interest in food. Ive already lost a few pounds due to low calorie intake. Hoping to make an appt today with a GI doctor to start finding some answers.

If anyone else has input on my post Id love to hear it. Id love to hear about chest pain caused by GERD, and whether it can persist for days at a time, non stop, seemingly without any reflux going on.

Hi I was diagnosed with silent gerd in exactly the same way as you. Had a few nights where I ate late at night and perhaps ate a little too much. I had horrific left sided chest pain which did not go away for 14 days solid. Was terrible when I lay down and I was petrified it was my heart. I had only ever had very very occasional heartburn prior to this. I ended up in a and e and was given this diagnosis.
The chest pain was there all the time but admittedly was worse when I ate

I called GI this morning to get an appt.. .Surprisingly they offered to see me TODAY, so I went right on and met with the GI. They are scheduling an Endoscopy for August. The doctor told me that he strongly suspected Eosinophilic Esophagitis. He explained to me that it is somewhat common in young men my age. I expressed my fear of esophogus cancer and he said "That would be at the bottom of my list...very unlikely"

My mind has been eased a bit after going in and talking to him. Ill have an endoscopy at the end of August and Ill find out more then. Until then Im going to try and relax best I can.